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Our Team - Supporting your Success

Heather Burton,
Project Lead

Heather is an experienced administrator having worked on a variety of projects in the public, private and charitable sectors. Heather is a real people person and has a passion for helping and supporting others achieve their personal goals.

Rob Cao,
Board Member

A serial entrepreneur with a passion for values driven, ethical leadership and people enablement. In a career spanning over 20 years, Rob has founded, grown, sold and supported hundreds of companies worldwide. His track record includes delivering business growth totalling over £1 billion and supporting over a dozen multi-million pound company mergers and acquisitions.

Rupert Cox,
Business Advisor

Rupert has a wealth of small business experience on leadership roles for membership-based business organisations where an empathy and support for members' businesses was of paramount importance. Rupert's experience spans agriculture events, tourism, commercial property and marketing sectors.

Aisha Elliott,
Business Development

Aisha has a background in Business Development and Sales Consultancy, primarily in the Construction sector. She is our Business Development and Marketing Co-Ordinator which is a new and varied role which suits her dynamic and ‘outside the box’ style.

David Hall,
Business Advisor

David is a business development specialist with a background in manufacturing, retail and the software industry. He is also a former County Councillor and was previously Deputy Leader of the County Council for 8 years. He is a small business owner himself and has an in depth understanding of the Somerset economy and the challenges faced by local employers and job seekers.

Sue Higgins,
Training Manager

Sue has a background in event management and business support. She heads up the Training Hub and co-ordinates the Business Start Up and GAP programmes. She also runs her own cake making business, and enjoys travelling, cycling and spending time with her family.

Jane Hummel,
Chair

A HR leader, professional and chartered member of CIPD, Jane brings a wealth of leadership experience from the NHS, police and small business sectors. She leads our the sba board as Chairperson and believes getting the process of staff management right makes any staff journey infinitely better.

Naomi Johnson,
Digital Support Officer

Naomi has a diverse background with experience in administration, sales, marketing, and recruitment. She is passionate about empowering individuals to develop their digital skills and supporting workplace well-being. In her spare time, Naomi is an e-commerce entrepreneur and period poverty advocate, working to raise awareness and educate others on this important issue

Chris Jones,
Business Advisor

Chris is a Chartered Surveyor with a wide range of professional experience in the rural sector. Having spent his early career working for Savills and a spell with National Trust more latterly, Chris has built a strong professional grounding in land management and agricultural consultancy.

Sally King,
Community Hubs Officer

Sally has a background working in the NHS, a Doctor's Surgery and a Primary School. She can be found in Glastonbury Library on a Monday morning, Shepton Mallet Library on a Monday afternoon and Chard Library on a Tuesday morning, assisting with the administration for our Community Employment Hubs.

Jennifer Lomas,
Venue Coordinator

Jennifer joined team SBA following an extensive career in hospitality with particular experience in management in the pub and hotelier industries. She looks after Great Bow Wharf, including event organisation.

Sarah Luke,
Business Advisor

With over 20 years of experience in Learning & Development across corporate and public sectors, including Local Authorities and District Councils, Sarah has a strong background in performance improvement and coaching. She specialises in leadership development and professional skills training, with a practical, people-focused approach that ensures her sessions are accessible and relevant.

Patricia Marks,
Founder and CEO

A business and social change thought leader with a significant executive portfolio of leaderships roles and experience across multiple sectors and industries. Patricia’s passion is “people success”. Her work and has helped develop thriving communities across the world working with partners across South East Asia.

Natasha Margetts,
Project Coordinator

Having worked in hospitality for 17 years, Natasha has established an outstanding reputation and for project management and administration. She is passionate about delivering world-class support enabling people to realise and achieve their potential and goals.

Nevelle Marchent,
Business Advisor

Throughout his career, Nevelle has helped many companies across a wide sector range, from Product Development, Manufacturing, Engineering, Consultancy, IT, Medical sector and Commerce.

Elissa Malet,
Youth Hub Project Lead

Elissa is a recent engineering graduate and is currently using her knowledge and experience of starting her career as a young person to support other young people on their journey.

Yesim Nicholson,
Business Advisor

Yesim has extensive project management experience across sectors including education and entrepreneurship. Yeşim has led major initiatives such as launching an International Agriculture University in Uzbekistan, establishing Gloucestershire's second government-funded Growth Hub, and transforming a digital communication system into a multi-million-pound product through strategic leadership. She also has considerable experience in training, coaching, and mentoring, helping individuals and teams achieve their goals.

Clive Ozzard,
Business Advisor

Clive has a wealth of experience and knowledge, with a background covering banking, sales, training and consultancy. He provides support to help business leaders across a wide range of sectors achieve their goals. He is a Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a qualified performance coach.

Clare Paul,
Business Advisor

Clare’s background is in retail & hospitality management where she specialised in turning around unprofitable businesses. She then became a small business owner herself and owned a successful public house, a retail butcher and a high street cafe. Clare is experienced in digital media marketing, lead generation and small business finance.

Rachel Robbins,
Finance Officer

Rachel has experience in financial and business management across the private sector, charities, and schools. With a sharp attention to detail and a strategic, commercial mindset, she ensures organisations operate efficiently and effectively.

Sian Robinson,
Board Member

Sian is a business owner and lecturer in Business & Management at the University of Exeter. She is a staunch champion for entrepreneurship and fully encourages individuality and self-belief as key factors for becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Elizabeth Shaw,
Business Advisor

Elizabeth Shaw (Liz) background is in accountancy with significant industry experience in all aspects of business accounting. She is particularly interested in helping individuals set up and grow their business and has been able to turn around several struggling businesses using her accounting experience. She also set up her own business in 2018 and has worked in a variety of different roles in some large organisations.

Gemma Sparks,
Business Advisor

Gemma is a Land Agent and Chartered Surveyor with a wealth of experience in the rural sector. For a number of years, she has helped farmers and land owners with business advice and assistance with seeking grants. Gemma also has experience in the events, rural tourism and business membership organisations sectors, alongside first hand experience of running a business, making her well placed to provide support to many rural businesses.

Graham White,
Business Advisor

Graham is an experienced leader in the design and print industries with specialist knowledge of import/export international trade. Graham has amassed a long and distinguished list of business directorship roles before becoming a business growth coach on High Growth and Growth Accelerator programmes. Graham has developed an extensive reputation as a business mentor in both International Development and general strategy

Amanda Whitlock,
Mental Health & Wellbeing Coach

Amanda is an experienced Wellbeing and Mental Health trainer and consultant. Accredited by Mental Health First Aid England, she provides both MHFA-Accredited and bespoke training, she also helps business owners and managers looking to provide the correct support for employees and provides courses to enable every workplace to provide the right work environment.

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